Escaped Texas Inmates Recaptured After Tip

Thinkstock/Getty Images(SULPHER SPRINGS, Texas) -- Two "extremely dangerous" escapees from an East Texas jail were recaptured Thursday in Cooper, Texas, north of Sulphur Springs, after a tip led authorities to a barn there, the Hopkins County Sheriff's Office told ABC News.

Brian Tucker, 44, and John King, 39, escaped from Hopkins County Jail in Sulphur Springs, Texas, around 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday.

Tucker was facing capital murder charges for allegedly strangling a man with shoelaces and King was charged with evading arrest, burglary and substance possession.

Hopkins County Sheriff's Department Sgt. Brad Cummings told ABC News that King received a 40-year prison sentence earlier this week.

The search for the two became a multi-agency effort. Cummings said that the manhunt involved the police forces for several surrounding counties, as well as Texas Rangers and U.S. marshals.

Authorities believed the inmates escaped from a recreation yard during allotted recreational time. They believed the men squeezed through a part of the surrounding fencing when a guard assigned to watch them from a window looked away.

Their black-and-white prison suits were found on the railroad tracks behind the jail. Cummings said that underneath the prison suits, inmates wear a white undershirt and a white pair of boxers.

At one point, the hunt for the fugitives prompted officials to lock down all schools in Hopkins County after a 2010 black Saturn Vue with a pistol inside was stolen from outside a home in Sulpher Springs at around 4 p.m. Wednesday, officials said.

It was not immediately clear after the escapees were recaptured whether or not the theft of the vehicle was tied to their escape.

Cummings said that inside the stolen Saturn was a .22-caliber Derringer pistol.